Where the Trains Always Run on Subjective Time

CSFF Blog Tour, Day 3: The Charlatan’s Boy, by Jonathan Rogers

As I pack up my bottles of snake oil and return various cryptozoological horrors to their jars, boxes, and cages, I’d like to spend a little time highlighting some of the excellent real reviews offered at other stops on this month’s Tour of Jonathan Rogers’ The Charlatan’s Boy:

You Can Take the Boy Out of the Country, but You Can’t Take the Country Out of the Boy – Sally Apokedak talks about “frontier fantasy,” the power of negative examples, and how Rogers stacks up against C.S. Lewis and Mark Twain in his portrayal of human nature, warts and all.

What is Truth? – Bruce Hennigan finds in The Charlatan’s Boy an affirmation of the power of truth to overcome a culture of lies. Robert Treskillard identifies some important lessons about truth embedded in the story. Chawna Schroeder takes a different tack, expressing concern that the connection of negative consequences to deceptive actions may not be strong enough.

The Children’s Crusade –Andrea Graham discusses the emotional abuse Grady endures over the course of the story, and in the comments, Jonathan Roberts talks about the difficulty children face when people they trust prove to be untrustworthy, an important theme in The Charlatan’s Boy and his Wilderking trilogy.

Well, it’s time to move on to another town full of suckers customers. Catch up with me again next month, when we’ll be reviewing…Hey! It’s The Wolf of Tebron, by Susanne Lakin! I’ve already read this book! I don’t have to fake another review–I can take the time to dig into some profound philosophical and spiritual issues and make a real contribution!

I feel so liberated. Perhaps this will mark my return to the straight-and-narrow.

(annoying youngster) Hey, mister! Yeller and I are still waitin’ to see that feechie you promised!

(annoying youngster’s mutt) Woof.

Kid, I have an even better idea. There’s a vacancy in my organization for part-time work on Saturdays. You got any acting experience?

(annoying youngster) Yeller and me was in last year’s Christmas play at First Frizzbateerian. I was Wise Man Number Two, and Yeller was a camel.

This turned out to be a lot more fun than I was expecting. I think you’re right about the frontier fantasy, Sally, particularly with regard to the Christian market–nobody else is doing it. I’ve seen a little in the secular market–Orson Scott Card gets into it with his Alvin Maker series, and quite a few of the old Twilight Zone episodes had fantasy or sci-fi content set in the Civil War or Old West.